And much, much more. The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.

Incidently, must of this criticism of right-wingers also applies to the Islamists they claim to dislike .That is: 2 (change “white supremacism” to “Islamic supremacism”), 3, 4, 5, 7. So although the extremist Western right-wingers and the extremist Islamists hate each other, they both have essentially the same mindset and underlying psychology,

The problem here is that the sensible Republicans can’t split to form their own party, because the electoral system in the USA enforces a rigid two party system. Another reason why FPTP is bad.

This affects Britain because, like it or not, the USA is the leader of the West, being the biggest Western country with the largest population, economy, and armed forces.

If the Republican Party is dominated by nutters, and they stand a reasonable chance of winning future elections, it would then be very problematic for the West. Which is why we need a strong European Union to be a potential counterweight to the USA, and to carry the torch of liberal, secular, democratic values.

5 Responses to LGF and the Republicans

The problem here is that the sensible Republicans can’t split to form their own party, because the electoral system in the USA enforces a rigid two party system. Another reason why FPTP is bad.

Sort of. There is always scope for a realignment, but it will take electoral meltdown of some sort combined with a bunch of incumbents splitting off to form their own party (instead of simply switching sides).

There are a large chunk of conservative Democrats, and a bunch of fairly liberal republicans, if the ground was right (ie Dems are unpopular but not as unpopular as the Repubs), then there’s space for a realignment.

If someone like Palin gets their nominee next time, I expect it to happen. And I really ought to look into some recent literature on this then write it up, it’s so close to my specialty that even an off prediction will be interesting.

“Sensible” Republicans? What you mean the RINOs who agree, pretty much, with all the socialist ideas coming out of the Obama administration. A RINO called John McCain got crushed last time and if the Republicans put up another he/she will get crushed again.

Good to see that you have taken Johnson’s “Soros paid for” screed at face value. He is taking one small section of the right and painting us all with the same brush. What exactly do fiscal conservative/libertarians have in common with a fascist/jew-hater like Pat Buchanan? In fact he and other less insane so-cons make it clear they loath libertarians with as much passion as the left.

To call Johnson on the right now… is a joke. He is fully paid up member of the right-hating Soros-funded Kos-type blogs.

What exactly do fiscal conservative/libertarians have in common with a fascist/jew-hater like Pat Buchanan?

Not a lot. Then again fiscal conservatism isn’t the same thing as libertarianism, and neither has very much in common with Palin, who mostly stands for religious populism, with a touch of anti-science sentiment.

Doesn’t the Latin American experience show that proportional representation and presidential democracy don’t mix? Any attempt to make the USA more democratic (by proportional representation, abolishing the electoral college, compulsory voting) is likely to backfire because of the fragility of the presidentialist system, as shown by all those Latin American states which fell to tyranny during the post-WWII era.

On the other hand a fundamental change in the constitutional order would be almost impossible – in many of those Latin American states previously mentioned there was talk of introducing parliamentary government instead when democracy was restored, but nothing ever came of it.

Doesn’t the Latin American experience show that proportional representation and presidential democracy don’t mix?

I’m not sure it does. If the USA used PR, I don’t think the result would be a military coup. If it happened in Latin America, that was more likely due to the fragility of democratic institutions and values in those countries.